10 December 2007By Kim Pov Sottan
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Human rights officials indicated that land disputes in Cambodia are becoming more violent, even though the number of disputes during this year is lower than that of last year.
Mrs. Chuon Chomrong, a land program official for the Adhoc human rights organization, said that, even though, the number of land disputes decreases, however each dispute are becoming more intense, and violence is also used, leading to death and injuries. Furthermore, the disputes are now larger in size, they involve hundreds of people in each case, and people were also evacuated from their entire villages.
Mrs. Chuon Chomrong said: “I want to say that their sizes are large and the disputes are very intense, they even led to shooting and killings because of these land disputes. Recently, we just saw the event in Preah Vihear province, where shootings and killings took place, and there were also several arrests made. Last year, there were several evictions, but the majority of them are in the cities, but now, these evictions take place in the provinces also.”
Adhoc’s past 10 months report indicated that, during last year, the number of land disputes reported to Adhoc amounted to about 400 cases, and this year, this number is only 320. Nevertheless, 2 people died, more than 10 people were injured, and 138 were jailed, even though some have been released since then and only 55 are still remaining in prison right now.
On 02 December, in a land dispute case in Battambang province involving more than 100 families from Maung district, the villagers came to Phnom Penh to protest about their land dispute with the Army chief of Military Zone 5.
43-year-old Hun Sim, a representative of the villagers, said that villagers who do not own farmlands, were authorized by the authority to clear forests covered with landmines. When they were clearing the lands, they met with all kinds of accidents (from the landmines), and they are now facing the Army chief who wants to kick them out of their villagers also.
Hun Sim said: “We struggle since the very first year, we fought malaria, we drank from small dirty ponds, because we didn’t have anything, we endured everything from sleeping with mosquito bites, living in the forests, under hardship. Our children lived like monkeys, they have no school to attend, there is no water wells, no roads. The entrance road was 3-kilometer long, to reach that area, you have to cross muddy areas, and the mud come up all the way to your thigh. After all these struggles, when our crops start to bear fruits, they (Army chief) said that the lands belong to them. The villagers are so disappointed.”
Mrs. Chuon Chomrong claimed that the majority of land disputes in Cambodia are usually pitting hundreds of families and the army chief, or the villagers and the authority, or with salesmen. The regions where the disputes are more intense and which led to eviction of the villagers are in the following provinces: Kampot, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, Battambang, Preah Vihear and Banteay Meanchey.
SRP MP Eng Chhay Eang, who is also a member of the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes (NARLD), blames land disputes in Cambodia on the weak application of the law. Rich and powerful people use the law to violate the people, and this issue will become even bigger if all of these activities still continue.
Eang Chhay Eang said: “If we don’t strengthen the application of the law, land disputes cases will not end, and they will grow even bigger because of the land price increases. This makes the rich and powerful even greedier, they want theses lands even more.”
These criticisms were rejected by Hun Sen who said that they are not true.
Hun Sen, who in the past recognized that land disputes in Cambodia are worsening and are cause of concerns as they can lead to a farmer revolution, during a seminar on international commerce on 04 December, took the opposite position by claiming that land disputes stem from the population increase instead.
Hun Sen said: “These problems are real, but the lack of lands stem from the population explosion. Those who came to Cambodia 29-year ago, Phnom Penh city under the genocidal regime were devoid of people, Phnom Penh was completely empty.”
Chum Bunrong, the NARLD secretary-general, indicated that, since 2001 until now, more than 4,000 land dispute cases were resolved, and there are only about 200 cases remaining to be resolved.
Chum Bunrong said: “Those who complained about land dispute, we resolve the issue for them, one after another. Now, we can say that there are 600-700 cases left only, because of the more than 2,000 cases, some of them could not be considered as actual complains, they were request for intervention, for issuing land titles and such. The actual number of disputes are not very larger, about 400-500 only. Therefore, our government is working hard to continuously resolve these issues, there is not a single day that goes by, that we do not resolve them.”
The NARLD indicated that about 200,000-hectare of lands were taken back as state properties, and 400 cases were resolved in the past year. These resolutions were conducted through the land management department, the local authorities, the tribunal, and the NARLD as the last resort.
Even though the NARLD claimed that they are resolving these land dispute cases, human rights officials indicated that the way these resolutions are brought forth were very complicated and they came too late. The population no longer trusts that their problems could be resolve, and this could lead to the use of more violence in the future.
Mrs. Chuon Chomrong, a land program official for the Adhoc human rights organization, said that, even though, the number of land disputes decreases, however each dispute are becoming more intense, and violence is also used, leading to death and injuries. Furthermore, the disputes are now larger in size, they involve hundreds of people in each case, and people were also evacuated from their entire villages.
Mrs. Chuon Chomrong said: “I want to say that their sizes are large and the disputes are very intense, they even led to shooting and killings because of these land disputes. Recently, we just saw the event in Preah Vihear province, where shootings and killings took place, and there were also several arrests made. Last year, there were several evictions, but the majority of them are in the cities, but now, these evictions take place in the provinces also.”
Adhoc’s past 10 months report indicated that, during last year, the number of land disputes reported to Adhoc amounted to about 400 cases, and this year, this number is only 320. Nevertheless, 2 people died, more than 10 people were injured, and 138 were jailed, even though some have been released since then and only 55 are still remaining in prison right now.
On 02 December, in a land dispute case in Battambang province involving more than 100 families from Maung district, the villagers came to Phnom Penh to protest about their land dispute with the Army chief of Military Zone 5.
43-year-old Hun Sim, a representative of the villagers, said that villagers who do not own farmlands, were authorized by the authority to clear forests covered with landmines. When they were clearing the lands, they met with all kinds of accidents (from the landmines), and they are now facing the Army chief who wants to kick them out of their villagers also.
Hun Sim said: “We struggle since the very first year, we fought malaria, we drank from small dirty ponds, because we didn’t have anything, we endured everything from sleeping with mosquito bites, living in the forests, under hardship. Our children lived like monkeys, they have no school to attend, there is no water wells, no roads. The entrance road was 3-kilometer long, to reach that area, you have to cross muddy areas, and the mud come up all the way to your thigh. After all these struggles, when our crops start to bear fruits, they (Army chief) said that the lands belong to them. The villagers are so disappointed.”
Mrs. Chuon Chomrong claimed that the majority of land disputes in Cambodia are usually pitting hundreds of families and the army chief, or the villagers and the authority, or with salesmen. The regions where the disputes are more intense and which led to eviction of the villagers are in the following provinces: Kampot, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, Battambang, Preah Vihear and Banteay Meanchey.
SRP MP Eng Chhay Eang, who is also a member of the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes (NARLD), blames land disputes in Cambodia on the weak application of the law. Rich and powerful people use the law to violate the people, and this issue will become even bigger if all of these activities still continue.
Eang Chhay Eang said: “If we don’t strengthen the application of the law, land disputes cases will not end, and they will grow even bigger because of the land price increases. This makes the rich and powerful even greedier, they want theses lands even more.”
These criticisms were rejected by Hun Sen who said that they are not true.
Hun Sen, who in the past recognized that land disputes in Cambodia are worsening and are cause of concerns as they can lead to a farmer revolution, during a seminar on international commerce on 04 December, took the opposite position by claiming that land disputes stem from the population increase instead.
Hun Sen said: “These problems are real, but the lack of lands stem from the population explosion. Those who came to Cambodia 29-year ago, Phnom Penh city under the genocidal regime were devoid of people, Phnom Penh was completely empty.”
Chum Bunrong, the NARLD secretary-general, indicated that, since 2001 until now, more than 4,000 land dispute cases were resolved, and there are only about 200 cases remaining to be resolved.
Chum Bunrong said: “Those who complained about land dispute, we resolve the issue for them, one after another. Now, we can say that there are 600-700 cases left only, because of the more than 2,000 cases, some of them could not be considered as actual complains, they were request for intervention, for issuing land titles and such. The actual number of disputes are not very larger, about 400-500 only. Therefore, our government is working hard to continuously resolve these issues, there is not a single day that goes by, that we do not resolve them.”
The NARLD indicated that about 200,000-hectare of lands were taken back as state properties, and 400 cases were resolved in the past year. These resolutions were conducted through the land management department, the local authorities, the tribunal, and the NARLD as the last resort.
Even though the NARLD claimed that they are resolving these land dispute cases, human rights officials indicated that the way these resolutions are brought forth were very complicated and they came too late. The population no longer trusts that their problems could be resolve, and this could lead to the use of more violence in the future.
7 comments:
What do you want to beg from Mi Kahing? She will give you her Pussy's hair!
Yep, that is right, and until all of Ah Khmer-Yuon illegal immigrants got the message, the stake will get higher and higher.
Install a few good leaders in the Kingdom and tell the people the truth and they will rise. Fourteen million -- that are good number.
At least people know who to beg. In the land of lawless, only the big gangters who can infuence
I say let this imbecile Viet troller bitch that pretends to be Khmer speaking for Khmer @11:24 AM run out of air and drop dead miserably because no Khmer in the right mind would never ever derogatorily call Khmer names "Ah Khmer-Yuon" throughout KI-Media and no Khmer in the right mind would never ever be swayed or influenced by this Viet troller bitch nonsensical, trash talking and writing.
[khmer unicode]មីសំផឹង យួនឯងនឹង ពូជអាយួន ឈ្លានពាន នឹងត្រូវខ្មែរ ស្នេហាជាតិ សំឡាប់អោយផុតពូជមិនខាន៕
That's right, 5:57, and the master beggars of all are Ah Khmer-Yuon landless slaves. Just looks at them go at it.
These people are having problems but why they still hold Mee Kahieng's picture, this bitch can help nothing.
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